The Summers I Lost You
by Starry Nights
Summary: Gerald finally gets the courage to ask Phoebe to be his girlfriend.  Part 1 of 3


**Disclaimer:** I do not own Hey Arnold or any characters.

**The Summers I Lost You**

**Part I: Friendship**

_Summer, After Freshman Year_

"No games today, man. I'm not in the mood."

Arnold put down the checkers board he was holding when Gerald walked in. "What happened?"

"I asked her to be my girlfriend."

"Phoebe? When?" Arnold paused. "She didn't say yes."

"I don't even understand what _happened_. I've been thinking about this for two whole days hoping she call and help me out." Gerald dropped onto the couch.

"Why don't you just ask her what she meant?"

"Always want to do the straight forward and honest thing, huh Arnold? Girls don't work that way."

Arnold rolled his eyes. "One relationship and you think you have all the answers."

"Hey, Kayla taught me a lot."

"And yet here you are." Arnold said sitting on the chair by his desk.

"Low blow, Arnold."

Arnold held his hands up. "I'm sorry. So what happened?"

"_Want me to walk you home?"_

_Phoebe shyly pushed her wet hair out of her face. "Oh, you don't have to do that."_

"_I want to. Besides, Arnold ditched me."_

"_So I'm second choice?"_

"_No, no!" Gerald stammered. "It's not like that. I just…" _

"_I'm only teasing you."_

_They smiled at each other. Gerald held out his arm. "Well, now you have to let me walk you home after that."_

_ After waving goodbye to various friends and grabbing Gerald's bag, they exited Park's townhouse and begin the walk to Phoebe's house. _

"_A pool on the roof is a great idea. I should tell Arnold to put one up on his roof. I'm sure his grandfather would go for it."_

"_I don't think his roof is structured to hold that amount of weight but perhaps his grandfather would allow one in the backyard. It would certainly bring the property value up."_

"_Yeah, but where would we get the money to do that?"_

_Phoebe shrugged then, "I'm not sure but you two are the most resourceful people I know. I'm sure you can come up with something. Of course, I will help if you want."_

_He smiled at her. "Thanks Phoebe."_

_ They walked in silence for a few moments until they reached the street before her house. "Oh! Before I forget, there is a special exhibit of Japanese manga art at the Brooklyn Museum next Thursday. I invited Helga but she had something to do so…"_

"_Now __**I'm **__your second choice."_

_She blushed. "It's a worthy position."_

"_I'd love to go and we can grab something to eat after."_

_They'd reach Phoebe's at this point and paused at the door. "I'd like that."_

"So? How is this 'non-date' different from all the other 'non-dates'?" Arnold asked once he realized Gerald was done speaking.

Gerald sighed. He stood up and started pacing the room. "Here's the thing. I've been 'non-dating' Phoebe since I've known her. I just was standing there."

"And?" Arnold prompted.

"There was a moment." He sat down on Arnold's couch again. "Man, do you know why Kayla broke up with me?"

"So she could date Jeremy Thompson?"

"You're a cruel kid, man."

Arnold held up his hands again. "I'm sorry. Go on."

"She was uncomfortable with our non-dates."

"Because…?"

"I like Phoebe!" He paused then continued with his story, "And I was standing there thinking. I want her to be my girlfriend So…"

_They stood awkwardly at the door smiling at each other. Before Phoebe could open the door to her house, Gerald broke the silence, "Well, I should be going. Dinner time and all."_

"_Yeah. Thanks for walking me home."_

"_Anytime. Are you coming to Gerald's Field Monday?"_

"_Yeah, after I practice my cello. I won't get there until 3:30."_

"_Great. See you then."_

"_Bye, Gerald."_

"_Phoebe, wait! Willyoubemygirlfriend?" He saw her eyes widened beneath her blue frames. Her hand lingered over the doorknob but she said nothing. Gerald stepped away from the house. "You don't have to answer now."_

"_Yes, well. I will see you on Monday then."_

"That's all. She went inside. I was so confused." Gerald buried his head into his hands.

"But she didn't say no."

"I called her twice today. She won't talk to me."

"But she didn't say no."

Gerald laid on the couch. "Need some of your wisdom. Lay it on me, man."

"Well, Phoebe isn't really an emotional person. She likes to think things out, you know research, pros and cons list. She's probably sorting through her own emotions. I mean, you've been thinking about this since Kayla dump- ah, well you know. You surprised her. Give her time man. Remember, she didn't say no."

She didn't say no.

That was his mantra once Sunday passed and she didn't show up to Gerald's Field. Naturally, he'd been distracted the entire game to the point where a ball sailed deep into the left field…then conked him on the head when he thought he saw her running into the field. That was only during the bottom of the first. To make matters worse, Helga had called him every nickname she ever bestowed upon him and some clever new ones for the rest of the game.

"Well, you were kind of distracted." Sid pointed out after Helga insulted him one final time before leaving the guys. "And we did lose."

"I'm having a rough day."

"But we lost."

"_Sid!_"

"Nah, it's okay Arnold. Sid, I'll play better next time."

Next time was that Wednesday, a touch football game that had big stakes- losing team wearing adult diapers to Rhonda's Fourth of July Picnic. By halftime, Gerald fumbled the ball twice and their fastest runner was reduced to tripping over his feet at 3rd and 2. They were down by 17 points.

"What the hell Gerald! First Sunday now this?" Helga yelled. Arnold pulled Gerald aside. Gerald looked at the rest of the players. They were trying very hard not to be mad at him and failing.

"You want to go home?"

"We'd have to forfeit. I can't do that to the team."

"She didn't say no, remember?"

"I'm starting to think that she didn't want to hurt my feelings."

"The HELL?" They turned around to find Helga standing behind them, her muddied hands on her hips. "Is that what this is about, dumb and dumber?" Helga ran to the bleachers and pulled out her cell phone. They watched her whisper into the phone and shortly after she ran back to the boys. "Phoebe said to meet her at the museum tomorrow. God, you could have called her yourself instead of dragging your sorry ass up and down this field this week. Think you can play now scaredy cat? 'Cause if I got to wear a diaper in the heat of July at a party, I'm coming after you."

Even though he is twenty minutes early, she's waiting for him at the museum. She tried to smile but when he got close to her, she looked down at the floor. She handed him his ticket and they quietly got on line.

"I'm surprised you came."

"Why?"

"I've been avoiding you."

Gerald rubbed the back of his neck. "Yeah, well. You didn't say no. I was hoping you'd would tell me what's up."

"I was scared. I don't want our friendship to be ruined. We have a great time as friends. You saw what happened between Rhonda and…"

"We are not Rhonda Lloyd."

"What about you and Kayla?"

"We're still friends!" Gerald sighed at Phoebe's look. "Well, I don't _hate _her."

"I realized this was something that couldn't be solved with pros and cons lists." The line moved until they were inside the museum. She steered him over to the cafeteria and sat down on the nearest open table. "I'd like to be your girlfriend."

"Really?"

She nodded shyly. "I like you, Gerald."

He took her hands in his. "I like you too. And we'll take this thing one day at a time and talk about stuff and I promise I'll be a great boyfriend to you and a great friend too."

"Thank you."

They stood up and began walking into the exhibit. "Hey, want to go with me to Rhonda's Fourth of July party? Stinky's team in diapers, I mean you can't miss that…"

**Author's Note: **Well, that last part was hard to write because I wanted to make sure I got the tone right. Gerald and Phoebe are (well, to me) very low-key characters so I didn't want to draw out the drama which resulted in three pages cut from this chapter. Part 2 of 3 coming soon!


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